The Kansas City Kansan, a GateHouse Media publication, is going online only starting Jan. 10, 2009. All print production will cease. According to an article posted to the newspaper’s web site:
The new KansasCityKansan.com Web site will offer greater opportunity for reader participation through comments and posting their own news and announcements. Businesses and civic organizations, for example, will be able to post their own press releases. Readers will find it easy to share community photos or their own stories and opinions.
As a former employee of Gannett, which has suffered its own economic turmoil over the last few years, I’ve consistently believed in the necessity for newspapers to adapt to the digital age. It’s true, the housing crisis has meant fewer real estate ads and forums like craigslist.org are surely eating into newspaper advertising dollars. Without that stream of revenue, it’s hard for newspapers as we know them to survive. But long before the housing market fell and small businesses were short of cash to spend on ads, the newspaper industry had an opportunity to adapt to the changing times. Now, as the Kansan is demonstrating, they are being forced to go digital and they are cutting jobs in the process. The Kansan is cutting its staff in half.
